When elder sister's squabble

When elder sisters squabble
and have a falling out,
forgotten slights remembered
like recurring bouts of gout.

It was a family holiday,
an anniversary.
The trip was supposed to be about
the Folks, not you, not me.

One barbed comment started it,
then over-reaction.
Met, of course, by another one.
Then disintegration!

Now the rest of us on eggshells tread,
avoiding invitations.
Not wanting to get dragged in,
so no recriminations.

Now several weeks have passed
with no reconciliation.
And no sign of one seems likely,
a pathetic situation.

So uneasy calm prevails,
With tensions heightening,
and if Mum gets ill through the stress of this.
Then there’ll  be a reckoning!